Certain electrical systems suffer from wear and other types of physical deterioration through use or age. In aircrafts, for example, vibration, moisture, temperature extremes, and improper maintenance may contribute to failure of components in electrical systems, including wiring failures. Loose connections, broken, frayed, and/or exposed wires, may cause arcing which may be the source of electrical ignition in aircraft wiring. Circuit breakers have historically been used to protect the wiring because it was recognized that electrical arcing in and around fuel pumps, boost pump motors and fuel quality indicators are dangerous.
Additional faults may occur as a result of carbon tracking or tracing, which can deteriorate wire insulation, so as to expose the conductors and result in intermittent short circuits between individual wires or to the air frame. Short circuits can cause damage to delicate avionic equipment or electrical equipment and cause system malfunctions while the aircraft is in flight.
In general, faults on power signals in power distribution systems pose a significant problem to systems or devices thereby powered. In certain systems electrical faults, such as arcing, can have catastrophic results. For instance, arcing from the electrical circuitry of an airline fuel pump may cause a fuel tank explosion leading to the loss of the aircraft. Similarly, arcing between wires proximate to the cockpit can cause sufficient cockpit smoke to also lead to an airliner crash. In less critical applications, such as commercial and industrial environments, electrical faults lead to significant damage, requiring inconvenient and often costly repairs.
Traditional solutions for electrical faults use circuit breakers, which can only detect ground faults and operate to shut down the electrical circuit after arcing has been occurring for some time. This protection circuitry is based upon current transformers and is large and bulky.
It would be beneficial to provide an interrupter device that functions to detect potentially hazardous faults in power lines prior to the fault being passed downstream by “instantaneously” removing the power from a device when such faults are detected.